There are many different inventions and uses in this country related to fastening of shoes worn by people. One such invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,701 589, in which a double ended hook is attached to an elongated elastomeric fastener passed through a pair of generally aligned eyelets respectively on a shoe split upper, with the respective looped ends attached to an end of the hook with the hook lying on the tongue of the shoe.
Other patents and prior uses include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,966,135; 5,737,811, and Cushe Pad It Out Lace Shoes, illustrated at www.storesavings.com and submitted herewith.
There are many problems of the prior art which are believed to be overcome by the herein disclosed and claimed invention. The stretchable elastic members may be selected from graduated lengths by the wearer of the shoe; the rigid elements generally spanning between opposed pairs of eyelets have an arcuate curved bottom face across the bulbous upper top of a foot of a wearer; the rigid members are elongated and have opposite end portions containing spaced apertures with a reduced neck slot communicating with the aperture so that the elastic member is stretched to reduce its diameter to pass through the neck and retracts to fill up and snaps into the aperture so that the rigid member is gripped thereby and held in place with respect to the elastic member while permitting minor lateral shifting of the rigid member to center the rigid member between the respective pair of opposed eyelets; the forces on the rigid member exerted by the elastic is more evenly distributed by the dual engagement at each end of the rigid member by the elastic member which enhances its useful life, as well as many other important advantages over the known prior art.